Music-sheet guide



'S. R. HARCOURT.

MUSIC SHEET GUIDE.

APPLICATION 'FILED MAR 21, 1921.

1,399,1 14, Patented Dec. 6, 1921.

gjnefis: I 3 5M UNiTED STATES PATENT QFFKJE.

ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR T0 W. JV. KIMBALL S, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

MUSIC-SHEET GUIDE.

1,399,114. Specification of Application filed March 21,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, STILLWELL R. HAR- COURT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Music-Sheet Guides, of which the following is a specification. 1

This invention relates to devices for antomatically maintaining the music record sheet of aplayer piano or like instrument in correct register with the tracker range of the instrument. Devices of this character, commonly known in the trade as tracker devices or trackers have heretofore, so far as I am aware, involved the use of separate motors to effect an endwise shift of either the delivery or receiving roll or the tracker-bar when the sheet creeps out of proper register; and these motors have usually been controlled either by the sheet itself in conjunction with special holes in the tracker-bar, or by mechanical devices operated by one or both edges of the sheet. Such tracker devices are complicated and expensive to manufacture, and more or less faulty in action and liable to derangement.

The main object or purpose of my pres ent invention is to provide a music sheet guide or tracker device that shall be very simple in construction, purely mechanical in character, reliable and efficient in action, and of very low cost. Another object is to provide a music sheet guide of such a nature and construction that it can readily be applied to any standard make of player piano or other pneumatically operated musical or other instrument without involving any substantial change in or alteration of they instrument itself. Another object is to provide a music sheet guide that will not involve any bodily endwise shifting of either of the spools or the tracker bar and conse quently will not require the use of a motor or motors to efi'ect such shifting. A still further objectis to provide a device that will cause the sheet to be snugly rewound on the delivery roll.

t is well known that the paper record sheets vary considerably in width according to climatic and weather conditions. In damp weather the sheets expand widthwise, and in dry weather they contract. Hence, it is necessary to make the body of the receiving spool of such a length (between its Letters P ten Patented Dec. 6, 1921.

1921. Serial No. 453,913.

heads) as will accommodate the sheet in its widest condition, since otherwise the ed es of the sheet will curl or bend up as the shzet is wound on the spool, and the coils will not lie in close and compact condition. But this allows a narrow sheet to creep edgewlse sufficiently to get out of correct register with the tracker-bar and produce discord the music; and hence has arisen the necessity of providing some means for automatically maintaining a correct registration of the sheet with the tracker-bar. It has heretofore been proposed to secure this re sult by making one head of the receiving spool slidable endwise of the body of the spool and spring-pressed inwardly, so that in the innermost position of the slidable head the spool will just fit a record sheet in its narrowest (dry) condition, and when a wider (damp) sheet is wound thereon the sheet itself forces the slidable head outwardly. This scheme, however, has not been found practicable, for the reason that it throws on the thin edge of the sheet the whole burden of forcing the head outwardly againstits spring, and this results in a curling of the edge and faulty winding of the sheet on the spool. In my present invention I employ a movable head on the receiving spool; but instead of making it inwardly spring-pressed I may leave it free, but preferably make it outwardly springpressed, and it is very gradually forced inwardly, as the winding of the sheet on the receiving spool progresses, by a shoe or shoes bearing on the continually increasing roll of paper on the receiving spool and operating through suitable connections, to press said movable head inwardly against the end of the wound roll on the spool.

My invention, its operative principle, and the advantages inherent therein will all be readily understood and appreciated by those skilled in the art as the same becomes better understood from the following detailed de scription, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein I have illustrated one practical and workable embodiment of the invention, and in which:

Figure 1 is a front elevation, partly in vertical section, of the delivery and receiving spools, tracker-bar, and music record sheet of a player piano equipped with my improved music sheet guide or tracker device;

Flg. 2 is a vertical section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; and

Fig; 3 is a vertical section enlarged on the 3-3 of Fig. 2. Referring to the drawings 7 5 designates the top bar, 6 the bottom bar,

and 7 the side bars of a rectangular frame or I herein.

V relatively thereto.

The receiving spool has one head 18 that is rigid with the body, whilethe other head 19 is attached to the body in such a manner as to have a limited in and out movement As herein shown the head 19 is slidably mountedon a pluralityof screws 20 entered in the adjacent end of th spool body and its central boss 21 isilikewise slidable on the spindle or pintle 22 of the spool. The end of the spool body is charm be'red around the, screws 20, as shown at 23 in Fig. 3, to form housings for light coil springs 24 that pressthe head 19 outwardly or away from the end of the body to the extent permitted by the heads of the screws.

Through the lower framebar 6 are formed a pair of countersunk holes 25 in which is slidably mounted a U-shaped member 26 that constitutes a support or carrierfor pair of shoes 27 mounted on the upper ends of the side limbs'of the support 26. These shoes are lightly pressed against the body of the spool 15 by the following described mechanism. Attached to or forming a part of the bracket 9 is a strip or plate 28'to which pivoted at 29 a lever, the longer bent arm 30 of which extends beneath the frame 6 andhas an up-turned end 31 apertured to loosely and flexibly articulate with the transverse limb of the shoe carrier 26. Attached to the lever arm 30 is a tension spring 32, the

b er

7 other end of which is anchored to the frame shoes.

bar 6; said spring tending to raise the arm 30 and consequently the shoe support and The shorter arm 33 of the lever has a forked upper end which straddles a thrust rod 3 1' slidably mounted in the frame bar '7 and in a bracket 35 attached to the latter; The rod 34 has a downwardly turned forked inner end 36 that straddles the spool chuck 13 and lies in contact with the boss 21 of the movable head 19. Loose on the rod 3 1 is washer 37 that is pressed against the forked end of the leverarm 33 by a compression spring 38 which abuts against a collar 39 ad-- justably keyed on the rod 34. By means of the spring 38 the lever arm 33 imparts an elastic yieldable push to the thrust rod 3%.

'A stop collar 10 keyed to spool head 19. I rod 3 1 on the opposite side of the lever arm 33 coiiperateswith the-bracket 35 to limitthe swinging and through the latter to the movement of the lever under the pull of spring "32.

It is believed that the operation of the device as an automatic music sheet guide or tracker will be apparent from the foregoing description of its construction and organization, .but the same may bebriefly outlined as follows.

sheet is hooked to the receiving spool in the usual manner, with theright hand edge of the sheet lying agalnst the inner face of the fixed head 18. If the sheet is narrower than the distance .between the inner faces'off the two heads, there will be, of course, at the start-a slight space or; clearance between the left hand edge of the sheetand the inner face of the movable head 19. As'the wind; ing up of the sheet on the receiving spool proceeds, during theplaying of the record, the shoes 27 and their support or carrier 26 are gradually forced downwardly, thereby exerting an inward thrust on the head 19, bringing the latter into contact with the left hand edge of the wound up portion of the sheet on the spool, as'indieated in Fig. 3; and since the pressure orthrust of the head is resisted by a closely rolled or wound body of the record sheet, no curling or bending over of the edge of the sheet occurs, and the two heads are thus automatically spaced to the exact width of the sheet, and no edgewise creeping of the sheet can occur. lVhen the movable head hasthus been brought squarely into contact with, the wound portion of the sheet on the spool, no further movement of the head tak s place; but the further swinging of the lever, as the wound roll increases in diameter, is permitted by the yieldingand compressionof the spring 38. l A single shoe may be. used in lieu of the pair of shoes shown and described, but the latter arrangement is preferred because better distributing the slight frictional drag on the sheet and promotinggreater uniformity in the winding. Moreover, in the construction shown the two shoes are equally balanced on the end of the lever arm 30 so that they exert exactly equal pressures on the receiving spool.

During rewinding the. shoes 27 serve another important and useful function in applying a light friction drag or back pull to the sheet, which keeps; the latter taut and causes it to be snugly rewound, thus eliminating the slack that usually exists in the roll on the delivery spool and which makes it necessary to give the spool several turns in the roll to remove the slack before placing the roll in the instrument. It is manifest that the mechanism shown The lower'end of. the record;

and described herein may be variously modified in respect of details of structure and arrangement without involving any departure from its operative principle or sacrificing any of the advantages thereof. Hence,

reserve all such variations and modifications as fall within the spirit and purview of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a music sheet guide for player pianos and the like, the combination with a receiving spool having a movable head, of mechanism actuated by the portion of the music sheet roll on said receiving spool for pressing said movable head inwardly as the sheet is wound on said receiving spool.

2. In a music sheet guide for player pianos and the like, the combination with a receiv ing spool having a movable head, or spring means urging said movable head outwardly from the end of the spool body, and mechanism actuated by the portion of the music sheet roll on said receiving spool for pressing said movable head inwardly as the sheet is Wound on said receiving spool.

3. In a music sheet guide for player pianos and the like, the combination with a receiving spool having a movable head, of a shoe spring-pressed against the body of said receiving spool, a movable support for said shoe, and actuating connections between said support and said movable head through which, as the music sheet is wound on said receiving spool, said movable head is pressed inwardly.

4. In a music sheet guide for player pianos and the like, the combination with a receiving spool having a movable head, of a spring means urging said movable head outwardly from the end of the spool body, a shoe spring-pressed against the body of said receiving spool, a sliding support for said shoe, and actuating connections between said sup port and said movable head through which, as the music sheet is wound on said receiving spool, said movable head is pressed inwardly.

In a music sheet guide for player pianos and the like, the combination with a receiv ing spool having a movable head, of spring means urging said movable head outwardly from the end of the spool body, a slidable thrust member bearing against the outer side of said movable head, a shoe bearing against the body of said receiving spool, a sliding support for said shoe, a pivoted lever at one end engaged with said sliding support and at its other end engaged with said thrust member, and a spring urging said shoe against said receiving spool.

6. In a music sheet guide for player pianos and the like, the combination with a receivin s 001 havin a movable head of sorin b C 3 6 means urging said movable head from the end of the spool body, a slidable thrust member bearing against the outer side'of said movable head, a shoe bearing against the body of said receiving spool, a sliding support for said shoe, a pivoted lever at one end flexibly articulated to said sliding support and at its other end having a spring thrust connection to said thrust member, and a spring acting on said lever to urge said shoe against said receiving spool.

' 7. In a music sheet guide for player pianos and the like, the combination with a receiving spool having amovable head, of spring means urging said movable head outwardly from the end of the spool body, a slidably mounted U-shaped shoe support, a pair of shoes on the upper ends 01 the side limbs of said support respectively and bearing against the body of said spool, and actuating connections between the transverse limb of said shoe support and said movable head through which an outward movement of said shoes relatively to the spool body'transmits an inward thrust to said movable head.

8. In a music sheet guide for player pianos and the like, the combination with a receiving spool having a movable head, of spring means ur ing said movable head outwardly from the end of the spool body, a slidable thrust member bearing against the outer side of said movable head, a slidably mounted U- shaped shoe support, a pair or" shoes on the upper ends of the side limbs of said support respectively and bearing against the body of said spool, a pivoted lever at one end engaged with the transverse limb of said shoe support and at its other end engaged with said thrust member, and a spring urging said shoes against said receiving spool.

9. In a music sheet guide for player pianos and the like, the combination with a receiving spool having a movable head, of spring means urging said movable head outwardly from the end of the spool body, a slidable thrust member bearing against the outer side of said movable head, a slidably mounted U- shaped shoe support, a pair of shoes on the upper ends of the side limbs of said support respectively and bearing against the body of said spool, a pivoted lever at one end flexibly articulated to the transverse limb of said shoe support and at its other end having a spring thrust connection to said thrust memher, and a spring acting on said lever to cause it to press said shoe support and shoes toward said receiving spool.

STILLWEIJL R. HAROOURT.

outwardly 

